The week-long campaign included activities that took place on July 11 and 12 across Hamad General, Rumailah and Heart hospitals. A series of workshops and lectures were held from July 13 to 16, featuring international and local quality improvement experts offering their insights about patient safety.
During his opening remarks at the launch of the formal learning sessions, Prof. Adam Cairns, CEO of Al Wakra Hospital and Hamad Bin Khalifa Medical City, highlighted the importance of these programmes in encouraging learning and collaboration between care givers and care receivers.
Patient Safety Awareness Week activities were held at Hamad General Hospital, among other places
Dr Moza al-Ishaq, executive director of Clinical Transformation, Quality Improvement and Patient Safety at HMC, urged healthcare providers to always treat patients kindly to reduce their anxiety, worry and stress, adding that a compassionate gesture or smile is as important as delivering good care.
She said, “During a consultation, we should realise that our patients see everything that we do, so our actions should help them feel better. Our patients will feel better much more quickly if we smile at and engage with them, and allow them to ask questions relevant to their health.”
Dr al-Ishaq added that all healthcare professionals should encourage patients to ask questions pertinent to their health, stressing that this would help improve health outcomes as well as the quality of service or care received. She emphasised that the simple questions that patients should ask are: "What health problem do I have? What do I need to do? And why do I need to do it?”.
Presenting on the topic of “Patient Safety: A Global Challenge”, two international speakers, Dr Luke Feeney, director of Risk, Audit and Safety National Maternity Hospital, Dublin, Ireland; and Dr Seval Akgun, professor of Public Health and Medicine Baskent University and chief quality officer, Baskent University Hospital Network, Turkey, emphasised that effective patient safety initiatives can only be possible if more focus is directed toward patient safety systems and work environments rather than individuals.
“To achieve sustained, reliable success in patient safety, we must evolve the way we think about patient safety, shifting our thinking from person-centred to system-level. This can contribute to the creation of error-proof healthcare environments – understanding of course that we are continually learning and improving,” said Dr Feeney.
As part of the safety awareness week programme, various HMC hospitals organised activities to help reinforce patient safety messages aimed at raising awareness of general safety measures. Booths providing information for patients, visitors and healthcare providers about patient rights, medication safety, hand hygiene and other patient safety ideas were set up in the hospital lobbies.
Staff, patients and visitors were engaged in dialogue and games designed to test knowledge about important matters such as hand hygiene and other safety related activities were also organised.
Official opening of the learning sessions in the presence of Ali al-Khater (chief communications officer, HMC), Prof Adam Cairns and Dr Moza al-Ishaq
Patients, visitors and staff members recently took the opportunity to learn and share knowledge about the importance of patient safety during Patient Safety Awareness Week events organised by Hamad Medical Corporation’s (HMC) Quality Improvement and Patient Safety Department.
